Chapter 11: Change that Churns into Constant
Two days. He's spent two days trying to locate himself a place to live for the sake of getting Makarov off his back. Countless signs at countless buildings down countless roads were read and investigated only for it to be a waste. Natsu Dragneel didn't need a roof or a bed. He's lived alone and under the comfort of the vast sky for as long as he could remember. Even the fleeting glimpse of his past life, of his life with the Black Haired Man, there wasn't a moment where he spotted a building or dwelling. The pond he woke up to in his early mornings he's awoken in Magnolia is more than enough for him. A familiarity was found here that he didn't get anywhere else and that alone was enough for him to settle. He had the choice of countless branches to lounge upon or trees to huddle under when he needed to sleep. Those choices were far and away better than a huddled building at the center of town where everyone crowded around.
If Natsu was entirely honest with himself, active hunting for a place to live wasn't all that considerable when stretched across two days. Most of the first day was him getting lost in the maze of paths that were always filled with hurried bodies that made it impossible for him to navigate. By the evening of the first day, Natsu finally found a sense of direction within the dense town around him, even if it wasn't by choice, but that didn't help him much the next day. His eyes would catch a sign that welcomed tenants, only to feel nothing but cramped at merely the sight of the building. Being restrained by walls, surrounded by people, and at the center of a busy town all made the man uneasy. It was unnatural. So, instead of making serious inquiries, Natsu would find, inspect, and abandon every possibility he passed the day before. There wouldn't be a third day. If he did the same today he wouldn't be able to promise that the day would be free of ash and flame. It was asking too much of his stretched patience.
With a groan, Natsu pulled himself from the ground and slapped water onto his face with cupped hands dipping into the cool waters of his secluded pond. Taking a surveying glance, he still had yet to see another animal come here and drink from the water or a fish that swam its way into it from the gentle stream that drained into this nook of peace. Any thoughts of why were lost on him and pushed away with a shrug of his shoulders as he turned to begin his trek back toward Magnolia and the Fairy Tail guildhall.
The commute to Fairy Tail was always a quiet one for how early Natsu woke up, the sun just beginning to peek over the horizon, but the moment he stepped onto the faint path toward the town he knew it would be different today. It started as a jolt of awareness that caught him by the back of the neck. A warning. None of his following steps were hesitant or slowed, but none were taken carelessly. Something or someone had their eyes on him. He could feel their intent. Aggression was directed at him as strongly as fear was, both becoming more and more apparent to the Demon Slayer as he exited the woods and now walked across open ground on a dirt path leading toward the town. Nothing stood out to him, his eyes searching for anything and everything to find some sort of clue.
The only clue there was to find appeared too late for him to prevent. Deep purple runes glowed brightly in a large squared perimeter around him, illuminating a translucent purple wall that looked to entrap him within the perimeter. In a flash, the previously empty path before him was filled with three bodies that looked at him with hard eyes and ill intent. At the center of the trio was a man wielding a rapier unsheathed and held tightly in his grasp. A red, militaristic double breasted coat with four yellow buttons was pristine and unwrinkled as it covered him from his ascot wrapped neck to his fine leather boots with a belt fastening it at his waist. Bright green hair fell straight in long, rigid locks that only fell out of place to sweep over his right eye and to form lightning bolts that extended from each side of his head. The intense look settling on the man's face was matched by the woman's on his right, who wore a green dress that matched both the hair of the center man, the Fairy Tail guild mark on his left hand, and the matching guild mark just over her right breast displayed generously by the dress. The dress bore a short spiked skirt that fell just past her mid thigh with black stockings tucked into pale pink sandals. The dress left the woman's shoulders exposed, but fine silken gloves fit just above the elbow. At the woman's back was a cape that flowed oddly to appear like two delicate wings were strapped to her back in a mystical pale pink that matched her sandals. Light brown hair fell loosely in draping locks that blew in the light morning breeze, almost obscuring dark brown eyes that lay behind thinly framed glasses. The third of the trio didn't share the severity of his two partners. His mouth was wide in a smile with his tongue falling loosely from it to display the black guild mark on it. His lower face was the only part of the man that wasn't obscured by the grated visor that severed the top half of his face. A pinstripe bodysuit covered the rest of the man's head and his upper body in black fabric that bore shoulder panels with white skulls and purple perimeters. At his waist was a light blue waist guard of draping fabrics with a dark "X" on each of the clothed panels with baggy black pants sitting underneath. Floating around the man were small totem-like objects that all had their own designs and a faint green glow around them.
"Good morning, Natsu. It is on behalf of Laxus Dreyer that the Thunder God Tribe greets you." The center man spoke with a stiff, refined voice that betrayed nothing but his impassivity. However, his body betrayed all that it needed to. Laxus's name was one that oddly made the scene make sense. There was no reason why those from his own guild would attack him, he hadn't had the time to make any of them mad, but if it was Laxus then there wasn't further reason needed. "I hope you have come prepared."
"Nah." Natsu interrupted whatever movements the sword wielder intended, his body tensing quickly only to strain at his sudden word. They may bear the same guild marks, they may hold the same master, but Natsu didn't hold any care for those that stood in front of him. They came to him, caught him in a perimeter of runes, and sought to fight. Whatever Makarov may say, he wouldn't stand down. "You should hope that you're prepared."
It wasn't malice. Not truly. He's been ambushed more than a few times in his life. Natsu was no stranger to it. There was no need for malice. Holding back, however, was never one of his skills. Fighting was, among a few things, the most natural thing to him. When he fought, that was all that mattered and all he knew. So, when three opponents stood before him first thing in the morning, it wasn't malice that ignited the flames that quickly torched the thin grass around him as it spread across the ground, but simply habit. Natsu's crimson flames emitted from his body naturally, clamoring to burn what could be reached and violently fought against the walls of the runed perimeter just behind him. Immediately, the three before him all took a look of visible apprehension as Natsu allowed his magic to run freely. In moments, the flames rolling from his body were already halfway clamoring toward the trio of Fairy Tail mages and already made the air around them sweltering. It was moments like this, moments when Natsu let his magic move freely, that his fire truly seemed alive
He had already won. Looking at them, looking into two pairs of eyes and a tongue that was now tightly clamped within a mouth, Natsu saw that they weren't going to strike first. They initiated the fight, but none looked keen on following through. Natsu, on the other hand, wasn't prone to half measures and was already preparing to utter his first spell.
Crack
A snap of energy, a clap and boom of power, and a flash of light interrupted the standoff that the two parties found themselves within. A bright yellow light flashed and crackled with arcing electricity at the center of their purple perimeter and from it was the large form of Laxus that unflinchingly met Natsu's gaze as crimson fire danced dangerously at the bottom of his draping coat.
"I remember telling you three to stay away from him. What part of that meant to ambush him on his morning walk?" His voice was intense without it rising above a conversational tone. Laxus' face was stiff and his eyes unmoving from Natsu's even as he addressed those from behind him.
"You said it would make things easier to know how strong he was so you could properly manage him. Us confronting him would do that. We had no intention of hurting him seriously, Master Laxus." The sword wielder, who seemed to be the leader of the group, spoke to Laxus as if he were giving a report to a commanding officer. Stiff, proper, and without a single shift in tone. None of that prevented the scoff that escaped Laxus' throat.
"You three being left in the infirmary for the next week wouldn't solve anything. Go back to the guild and I'll address your punishment for trying to attack a fellow guild member later." Laxus bit out his orders, but the three seemed hesitant in following them. While Natsu didn't meet them, he could still see heads practically peek around Laxus to look at him in his periphery. "Now!"
With that final word, the three that comprised the Thunder God Tribe bolted from the almost-battlefield as the purple perimeter shattered apart like combusting glass. Natsu's magic lessened itself as the situation seemed to be on the cusp of resolution, yet embers still found themselves dancing around him from his trickling magic in the wake of Laxus' continued presence.
"Are you going to test to see how strong I am now?" Natsu cut out with some intensity, his mind still lingering on the possibility of a fight. His body and mind quietly hoped for it. It didn't help that Laxus' aggressive wariness of him was too annoying to just walk away from. "I wouldn't have let them go if you were."
"Don't flatter yourself, kid. I would be more than enough to handle a pipsqueak like you, but it ain't happening. I don't trust you, but as long as you're a member of Fairy Tail you won't be attacked by one of our mages. If you do, it will be handled." Laxus gave Natsu one more assessing look before turning around to walk toward Magnolia but only to stop after only a few steps to look over his shoulder. "And don't worry about those idiots. They hang onto every little thing I say and get themselves carried away. After I'm done with them I'll send them your way for a proper apology."
In a flashing of cracking lightning, and a deafening thunder clap to follow it, Laxus disappeared in an eruption of yellow current. All alone after a quick abundance of company, Natsu chose to take a more leisurely pace in his continued stroll toward the Fairy Tail guildhall. That brief moment of almost being drawn into a fight had Natsu pulse racing. Blood was pumping through his body with a dull thud following every beat of his heart. His magic shuddered beneath his skin, flames begging to burst free and wreak havoc on anything and everything. Thoughts of how flooded his mind and swirled themselves in circles without end. How he would attack, how he would take their attacks, and how he would make sure they wouldn't think to attack him again. Nothing serious. As it was, he was a Fairy Tail mage, as were they, but he wouldn't need physical damage to make his point.
Before he realized it, the red double doors of the guild hall impeded his slowed pace and everything else came to a halt within him as his hand reached out and opened the heavy set of doors. In the few times he's arrived at the guildhall, Natsu had always been one of the earliest arrivals. Granted, he was never the first. Either Makarov himself, the Strauss family, or both would already have arrived to open the guild and prepare it for the day. On this day, given the brief delay to his route, more time was given for people to make their way to the hall and start their day. Makarov could be seen in his usual spot atop the bar, a pint already filling his hands, Lisanna was working behind that bar, Erza was sitting at the bar with her back to the front of the hall, Elfman and Gray were already arguing at the only occupied table on the floor, and Mirajane was lounging over the railing on the second floor with her blue eyes already trained on him. Natsu would like to assume that those he saw were all there was to address, but the dampened echoes that seemed to bounce around the walls from an unknown source told him otherwise.
Natsu stalked up to the bar, taking the seat on the far left to put ample space between him and Erza, and quietly asked Lisanna for breakfast. With a smile and an enthusiastic nod, the girl pushed through the door behind her and left the main floor filled with only the sounds of bickering between the two men behind him. For several moments, Natsu didn't even recognize the pair of eyes that had rested on him. Not until a very intentional clear of the throat followed a particularly percussive shudder through the guild hall did Natsu look up to meet the pointed gaze of the guildmaster.
"I don't suppose you know what this is about, do you?" His gruff voice was too inquisitive to be legitimate, even if Natsu hadn't been able to see the expectant look on his face. The rumbling continued and Natsu could only raise an eyebrow at it. Makarov acted as if Natsu knew what it was, that he should know what it was, even after the old man just watched him walk in. "Laxus' Thunder God Tribe came scrambling in here with terrified looks on their faces just before Laxus barreled in all grumpy to drag them out back and start running them through some intense routines I save for the troublemakers around here."
"Hah!" Mirajane laughed exaggeratedly from the railing above at Makarov's explanation, the woman leaping from her perch to land on the first floor in a heavy thump that was followed by an annoyed scoff from Erza. Mirajane took one of the many seats between the only other two seated at the bar as her sister pushed through the door behind the bar again. "You'd have thought the three of them decided to piss in the guy's coffee the way he grabbed hold of them, and not a single one of them fought back. Fried is understandable, the guy hangs onto everyone of Sparky's words, but Bickslow and Evergreen usually have one or two of their own thoughts rattling around somewhere."
Lisanna set the still sizzling plate of food before Natsu with a smile, not bothering to set utensils for him. In the few times he's eaten her food, she's already learned that silverware was beyond him and that volume mattered more than neatness, which was why the pile of assorted foods seemed to be just thrown on the plate and shoved off to him. Because it was and he didn't need anything else.
"Come now, big sis. You know that they just admire Laxus. That's why they named their team after him." Lisanna tutted at Mirajane with little reaction from the older sibling. Or maybe there was and it simply was nonverbal. Natsu's attention was pulled to his plate and his attention narrowed considerably. With what he could spare, Natsu responded to Makarov's question as he began to dig at the food before him.
"Why would I know why Laxus punishes his team?" He could have said something. It wouldn't have been a chore to recall what happened minutes ago, but he refrained. Why? Natsu wouldn't have explained it himself. He was annoyed, he was primed for a fight, but reporting it to Makarov felt unnecessary. Laxus had said he would handle it, right? He was handling it right now, wasn't he? Why say anything more?
Natsu looked up to see Makarov's eyes narrowing at him with the pint in his hand slowly pulling from his lips. It was clear he was about to press Natsu on it, but he wasn't given a proper chance of it when the bickering between Gray and Elfman climaxed with a loud shout and a louder crash coming from Natsu's right. Whatever Makarov had intended to say was dropped quickly in favor of gazing down at the heap that was Elfman who was now buried in the remnants of the two stools he took out with him. In a moment, Mirajane filled the hall with her cackling, Lisanna busied herself with helping her brother up and clearing the splinters of wood, Erza turned back to her food, which seemed to be cake first thing in the morning, and Makarov began lecturing Gray and Elfman about needing to grow up and learning to settle their issues more maturely. Maybe he was mistaken, but Natsu thought that the subtle quirk in Makarov's lips as he spoke made his words less serious than they sounded.
With the attention pulled from Natsu, he settled himself in eating his breakfast as the guild around him started coming to life. More people walked through the doors, more people sparked conversation, and those conversations inevitably led to more scuffles and clatters around him. The plate before him emptied and refilled itself more than a couple of times already, but Natsu's appetite had yet to be sated. He rarely ate so much when he was on his own, it was difficult to hunt enough to consistently do it one way or the other, but with the food so available and his stomach so ravenous he simply couldn't help himself. Having been almost goaded into a fight first thing in the morning, it felt as if his magic was clamoring for release. It ate at him, it roiled through his body, and it burned just beneath his skin like a volcano on the precipice of eruption, yet all he had to calm it was the delicious food that Lisanna kept placing in front of him. He hadn't even needed to say anything before the younger girl placed the second plate of food next to the quickly emptying first, a smile on her face and amusement twinkling in her eyes. Now that she was doing the same thing for the fourth time, she seemed comfortable enough to say something before she wandered away to other duties.
"This is the first time I've seen you eat so much. Wake up starving this morning?" Lisanna asked with a teasing tone that matched the glint in her eyes. The question caught Natsu off guard, him fully expecting her to walk away just as quick as the last few times, and only gave her a shrug in return as he swallowed the mouthful that kept his mouth closed.
"Something like that." He supplied lamely, not truly knowing what else to say. As he did, another rumbling of Laxus' punishment rolled through the guild. The guild steadily got louder as the morning continued, but the sounds from behind the hall were quick to match that incremental increase all the same. At first, questioning looks were shared across the open floor of the hall with the words silently passing between them all, but it was entirely ignored and forgotten shortly after.
Lisanna shot him a knowing glance at the particularly loud noise that erupted from outside the rear of the guildhall but spoke nothing of it. Instead, her bright blue eyes looked beyond him and at the chaos that lay as his back, a chaos he was comfortable simply ignoring for more food being swallowed down. She didn't move or speak for several moments as she seemed content with merely surveying the guild.
"How're you liking Fairy Tail?" She seemed to ask out of nowhere, her voice far more distanced than before despite her not moving away from him. Natsu looked up from his plate, quirking an eyebrow at the girl that didn't seem to notice in her lost thoughts. Her innocent eyes seemed filled with something Natsu couldn't place as her smirk grew into a full smile.
"It's different." Natsu settled with after a moment's pause. There wasn't much else he could say otherwise. He had no experience with other legal guilds and his life before joining Fairy Tail, his life only a week ago, was nothing similar to it had been. Was it an improvement? Was it an impairment? He couldn't begin to know. Not yet.
"It is." Lisanna began, almost jumping on the reply before Natsu finished his second word. "Fairy Tail is more different than anything else, that's for sure." Pride was beaming in her voice and Lisanna seemed content to stay lost in…whatever it was she was lost in. Natsu thought about making himself clear, letting her know that it wasn't Fairy Tail itself that he called different, but he thought better of it. Instead, Natsu let her bask in the feeling he couldn't comprehend. He thought about asking her, but before he could there was a heavy hand that clapped heavily on his right shoulder, thick fingers squeezing none too carefully.
"Be careful who you're talking to around here." The blue eyes of the tall standing, broad shouldered Elfman Strauss glared down on Natsu. His face looked grim, spiky white hair drawing a grim shade over his face, and his body was rigid beneath as he stood only half an arm's length away. "A man makes sure to protect their loved ones from potential dangers."
It didn't take a particularly smart man to understand what the large man was hinting at. Clearly the man was concerned about his sister, even though the girl seemed to be only annoyed by the interruption. After his start to the morning, however, Natsu found it hard to just brush off the implication. He wasn't a danger to anybody that didn't deserve it. He could take the stares that Erza would constantly send his way, the nervous glances from others at the bar, or even the zone of space that seemed granted to him and him alone. All of that was easy to ignore. The hand squeezing his shoulder was not and the fire that burned at him could no longer be quenched by swallowing down food.
Lisanna was saying something, from the tone it seemed to be some kind of admonishment directed at Elfman, but what she said was lost on him. The sound reached his ears, but his mind was focused elsewhere. Instead, Natsu's focus lingered on the man he rose to face. The tight grip of Elfman's hand stayed, even as they were both now standing and facing each other, their gazes meeting the other unflinchingly. Natsu gave it a moment, a singular moment, before he acted. Had Elfman removed his hand and walked away, Natsu could have peacefully settled back down onto his stool and continued to eat. When the hand stayed, there was only one course of action left.
His body exploded into movement like a tightly coiled spring being released from its confines. A foot rose, the knee rising to his chest as the leg stayed tightly bent, and kicked forward with unhindered aggression. A growl tore through Natsu's throat as the ball of his foot found purchase in the soft flesh below Elfman's ribcage. Magic wasn't used, he had that much self-control, but the strength at which the kick was thrown wasn't dampened in any significant fashion. Elfman's body lingered in place for just a moment, just long enough for a desperate grip on Natsu's shoulder to tighten and to see Elfman's shocked bulging eyes at the strike, before he was launched into the crowd of people that made up Fairy Tail.
If he was a little more aware, Natsu would have noticed everyone's attention focused on both himself and Elfman. Maybe he would have felt the countless eyes gazing upon them with nervous curiosity and realized that the chaos that was usually so constant within the guild was halted, leading to a very clear path to disaster. When Elfman flew away from the strike, Natsu's foot driving Elfman off of his feet and completely airborne, countless bodies were struck with the mighty size of Elfman. Their stagnancy in watching the developing tension between the two men left them all flat footed in reacting when a massive man was hurling toward them. Flailing arms struck faces and bodies, stools and tables were overturned with their contents flying everywhere, and whole groups were whisked away by the flying mass that was Elfman Strauss. Natsu watched with a morbid interest as he watched the activity that sprung to life from his kick. People fell into other people to earn themselves an annoyed shove or strike, drinks drenched some members who took out their frustrations on their neighbors, bodies relocated by Elfman fell into an all new brawl with heckling voices and battle cries. There wasn't even a moment where Natsu's kick was questioned or spoken about, the brawl taking a life of its own without hesitation.
"See, I told you. There's really nothing like it." The flutter of Lisanna's voice came with heavy amusement as they both watched the brawl erupt to life without so much as a single coherent word uttered across the masses. Every perceived slight or transgression was met with retaliation. Nobody was targeted, nobody was forgotten, and everybody dished out as much as they took. It was such a quick turn around, such a drastic change, that Natsu couldn't bring himself to say anything in response.
"Natsu!" A voice cut through the cacophony of swinging arms and guttural yells, one that echoed loudly and shared its amusement openly. Suddenly, the sea of bodies was separated once again by the same flying mountain of a man whose limbs flew in the air wildly. Natsu leaned to his right to maneuver himself out of the man's way and for the second time that morning Elfman relieved two stools of their positions at the bar and sat himself amongst the gathered debris he both brought with him and caused anew. With raised eyebrows, Natsu looked back at the parted groupings of people to see a smirking Gray stand alone and untouched through the chaos. His shirt was already shucked off, displaying his dark guild mark and the necklace that hung low on his chest. "You've seemed to have dropped something!"
Gray's smile grew in what could only be described as a challenge. Effortlessly, like only a man with years of experience could do, Gray subtly weaved and dodged in place to evade precarious projectiles or careless fists and even tossed a few would-be combatants without taking his eyes off of Natsu. The roil of magic was still heavy in his stomach, the call for action screaming through his limbs, and the challenge sent by Gray tickled a competitive edge in Natsu's mind that he didn't even realize existed. Yet, another part of him couldn't help but feel like it was a bad idea. He was feared, he was viewed as a threat, and running into a crowd and fighting wouldn't help calm those thoughts. He knew how he was in a fight.
Natsu had almost convinced himself to turn away and rejoin Lisanna at the bar and continue eating away his need for action, but then a heavy hand clapped his back.
"What're you waiting for, Pinky? Don't tell me you're scared of that princess, are you?" Looking over his shoulder, a different pair of blue eyes met his own. They weren't the grave eyes of Elfman, and certainly lacked the innocent glow of Lisanna's, but somewhere in between. Amusement and challenge battled within a sharp gaze that warned of danger should one cross the eldest Strauss. At the provocation of Mirajane, Natsu forgot all about his uncounted plate of food still waiting for him at the bar. His mind had immediately shifted gears that meant to focus on the cocky grin of Gray that still stood amongst swarming bodies.
"ENOUGH! All of you hooligans just settle down!" Makarov's voice bellowed over the clamoring bodies and charging voices, stopping the brawl in mere moments as he stood above them all on the second floor's railing. Even though, from all the way up there, his small stature was all the more obvious, nobody within Fairy Tail seemed keen on ignoring the demands from their master. People scrambled from the ground, tables were set straight, and backs went rigid as all eyes focused on the small guildmaster and the reason he called an end to the brawl. When Natsu turned around to focus his attention on Makarov as well, he found that the wizened gaze of the guildmaster felt the need to limit his gaze to Natsu and Natsu alone. There wasn't a jolly smile, a compassionate grin, or even a pleasant neutrality on Makarov's face, only stern seriousness. Natsu felt his shoulders tighten in response, a sudden alert signaling its way through his body, as he tried to prepare himself for whatever issue that could have come.
"Erza and Gray, please join Natsu and Mira before me. There is an announcement I need to make." Gone was the percussive baritone of Makarov's demands for peace and back was the man's usual aged voice. Still, there was little give in the man's order, the seriousness in his gaze reflecting itself in tone. Erza seemed to appear from nowhere, appearing at Mirajane's right now that she was turned around only a few steps ahead of Natsu, and Gray sidled up a few feet from Natsu's left side after forcing himself out of the heart of the crowd. The four of them stood out from the rest of the crowd, separated just in front of the bar, but still Makarov's eyes remained trained on Natsu alone. "As some know, councilman Jellal Fernandes has sought to become a friend and ally of Fairy Tail." Erza's back seemed to straighten itself further than it already was at the mention of the councilman, clearly prideful of the man who seemed to be her friend. "That young friendship is to be tested already as he's called on us to eliminate a dark guild that has hidden itself as a guild of the light for years. I have decided that you four will be the representatives of this delicate assignment sent straight from a member of the Council."
Natsu eyebrows flew up unbidden, surprise likely free and clear on his face as he wordlessly met Makarov's tense stare. He may know precious little about many things, being left to his own devices for so long, but Natsu wasn't ignorant of the thoughts of those around him. Elfman made it clear just moments before. He wasn't trusted. Natsu understood that those thoughts and reputations weren't for no reason and he was sure that he would be kept with a stern eye and a short leash. Being sent on an assignment focused solely on removing a dark guild wasn't a short leash. There now wasn't a leash and they stuck a full platter in front of the beast.
Murmurs filled the hall behind Natsu, likely iterating what he's already thought only speaking it aloud to each other. To his surprise, the same couldn't be said about the three around him. They were all quiet and equally unfazed by the news Makarov gave them, all seemingly waiting as the old man walked across the railing and made his way down the stairs. They already knew this would happen. This was all to tell me and explain it to everyone else. When Makarov reached the ground floor the small master immediately pulled himself onto the bar top before he extended an arm with a sheet of paper with scrawling painting its front. Unlike the page given to Mirajane for their last mission, Natsu noticed that this sheet was hastily written upon and disorganized as if it was written offhandedly and without direction. Still, Erza took the sheet and turned on the rest of them with her face pulled into a stern frown, brown eyes blazing with determination.
"We shall all meet at the train station in an hour, not a minute later. We will do this job properly and without issue." Erza made it a point to look at Natsu and Natsu only much like Makarov had, albeit with significantly more accusation beaming from the woman's lone visible eye. His sigh was silent, his annoyance mounting once again, but he stayed quiet as Gray promptly agreed and Mirajane walked away with a scoff being thrown over her shoulder at the armored woman, leaving only Erza and Natsu behind. The red haired woman took a step forward, her boot heel making an audible stomp upon the scarred floorboards, and leveled her glare closer to his face. "My eyes will be on you, Akuma. You will follow our rules on this job."
She lingered for several moments, clearly waiting on something. Natsu let his eyes narrow and made sure not to drop her gaze, showing no more hesitancy than he showed Laxus, but still let his head nod acutely so she could storm through the crowd of Fairy Tail members untouched. When Erza left, Natsu's sigh was more audible as he turned back to the bar. Makarov looked at him with what could only be encouragement and a reassuring grin as he was backed up by the enthusiastic Lisanna that held her thumb up in her own support. Seeing as that was all he would get, Natsu turned on his heel and walked out of the guild hall as it began its ramp up into another brawl.
Natsu couldn't help but acknowledge the delicate fingers of apprehension that crawled up his spine as he left the guild, foretelling him to be watchful of whatever was to come.
A but of an intermediary for the next job that's done while also establishing some things a little broader than the small group we've been following. I want to make this clear, there is no way that this Natsu just assimilates into Fairy Tail. There will be growing pains, and I consider it a large part of the narrative showing that process. It won't be contentious forever, if that's a concern for any of you.
That said, next chapter is a fun one. Entirely different perspective in a different setting altogether. Seeing how I've just started my last spring break of college, I think I should be able to get a double chapter week out here coming up.